Why July Fourth? The awkward question had to be asked.
In 1776, John Adams thought July 2 was the big moment for American independence.
Joseph J. Ellis is the author, most recently, of “The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding.”
On July 3, 1776, John Adams wrote the following words to his wife, Abigail, from the Continental Congress in Philadelphia: “The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. … It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with ... Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
Why did Adams think July 2 was the decisive day? Because it was when the members of the Continental Congress approved a proposal from the Virginia delegation declaring that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.” As Adams saw it, that was the vote solemnly declaring a shared commitment to American independence. In another letter to Abigail on July 3, Adams wrote: “Yesterday the greatest Question was decided, which ever was debated in America, and a greater perhaps, never was or will be decided.”
Nor was Adams alone in sensing the gravity of the step they’d taken. Many years later, Benjamin Rush, a Philadelphia physician and signer of the Declaration, shared with him an anecdote that Adams liked to repeat. After the vote on July 2, Benjamin Harrison of Virginia approached Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. “I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry,” he observed, “when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead.”
What Adams did not seem to understand was that no one outside the Continental Congress knew about the vote on Virginia’s proposal. What the rest of the world did know about was the vote on the Declaration of Independence, which did occur on July 4, and the printer put that date atop the document that went out to the world. Moreover, the popular musical and film “1776” concludes dramatically with all the members of the Continental Congress stepping up to sign the Declaration on July 4.
But that never happened. Most members signed the Declaration on Aug. 2, but some did not sign until September. The confusion becomes even more complicated because of a painting by John Trumbull that hangs in the Capitol Rotunda entitled “Declaration of Independence.” The painting shows five men, including Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, approaching the desk of John Hancock, the president of the Congress, as dozens of delegates look on. Viewers then and since have assumed that the scene depicts the Declaration being signed on July 4, 1776. Instead, it depicts the delivery of the Declaration drafted by committee on June 28.
Over the next few years, Adams changed his mind about emphasizing a single day for celebration, most especially with a focus on the passage of the Declaration of Independence. He thought doing so detracted from the slow but steady way that a majority of the American people reached the conclusion that independence was inevitable. In any case, he came to believe that the real turning point was May 15, 1776, when a resolution (Adams wrote it) by the Continental Congress calling on the colonies to revise their constitutions and clarify their commitment to independence was overwhelmingly approved.
But because July 4 was the date the printer put on the first edition of the Declaration, over the next 50 years most celebrations of American independence occurred then. Given all the confusion about which moment, which date, was most pivotal, though, the Fourth of July wasn’t wholly embraced. It was an awkward question to ask, but did they have the date right?
On July 4, 1826, the fates delivered a conclusive answer to that question. Precisely 50 years to the day after the vote on the Declaration, both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to their maker. Though accounts of their last moments varied, the story goes that on their deathbeds, Jefferson, in Monticello, said, “Is it the Fourth?,” and Adams, in Boston and unaware that his friend and rival had died a few hours earlier, said, “Thomas Jefferson survives.”
The likelihood that both men, so instrumental in forging a nation, would die on that special day defied any rational mode of measure. The gods seemed to be speaking, and from that day forward, July 4 was unquestionably the proper date to celebrate American independence.
The nation’s 250th celebration this year will be richly ironic, given that the current occupant of the White House apparently believes that he is the second coming of George III. Yet America’s semiquincentennial is bigger than any individual, and for that reason the Fourth warrants plenty of pomp and parade, illuminations and all the rest.
NewsletterDaily
Today’s Headlines
The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors, delivered every morning.